What Does Six Million Look Like?

Written by Robyn Straub

The Paperclip Project
“What does six million look like?” This question, posed by an eighth grader at a middle school in Whitwell, Tenn., led the school into a 3-year social justice program that sought to teach students the magnitude of the Holocaust and the importance of social tolerance.

According to the Holocaust Project’s web site and documentary, as it came to be known, the initiative was launched after the principal of Whitwell Middle School, Linda Hooper, met with a group of parents and teachers to discuss the curriculum’s strengths and weaknesses. Residents of Whitwell, a former mining community with a population of 1,600, were almost entirely white and Protestant. In fact, with five African-American students and one Hispanic student, only two ethnic minorities were represented in Whitwell Middle School at the time of the program’s inception. Furthermore, before the Holocaust Project, students, teachers, and parents in Whitwell had never met a person from another country or faith.

Hooper sought to overcome the lack of ethnic diversity in this near-homogenous community. She sent David Smith, a history teacher and assistant principal, to an enrichment programs workshop. There, Smith saw a moving presentation on the Holocaust and decided to use the Holocaust story to teach students about hatred and its costs.

Smith led the Holocaust Project in 1998 with Sandy Roberts, an eighth-grade English teacher at Whitwell Middle School. Due to the disturbing nature of the images and stories students would be exposed to, this program began as a voluntary, once-a-week after-school activity for eighth-graders only. In its initial stages, Smith and Roberts read aloud from Elie Wiesel’s Night, The Diary of Anne Frank, and history books. As students learned about the Nazi genocide, they found it difficult to comprehend the magnitude of the loss of six million Jews. It was at this point that a student asked, “What does six million look like?”

That was when and how Whitwell Middle School’s Holocaust Project truly took off. Hooper, Smith, and Roberts encouraged students to collect six million of something to represent the countless Jews who perished in the Holocaust, and after conducting research, the students selected paperclips. Why paperclips? During the Holocaust, Norwegians wore paperclips on their collars to protest against Nazi policies and to demonstrate their solidarity with Jews and those being persecuted. The students at Whitwell Middle School admired this silent protest and dedicated themselves to collecting six million paperclips.

This mission was not an easy undertaking; by the end of the first year the Holocaust Project had only collected 10,000 paperclips. Hooper, Smith, and Roberts feared it would take the students years to reach their goal. It was at this time that Peter Schroeder and Dagmar Schroeder-Hildebrand, journalists who cover the White House for a German-language newspaper, learned about the Holocaust Project. The Schroeders felt an obligation, as part of the last generation of Germans to live during the Holocaust, to share their knowledge of this historical event by education people on a global scale. They arranged for an interview with Hooper, Smith, Roberts, and some eight-grade students involved in the Project.

When the Schroeders arrived in Whitwell they were greeted by the entire community. The Schroeders saw the students’ collection of paperclips and read the letters enclosed with each paperclip submission. These letters had been written by Holocaust survivors, children of Holocaust victims, and others that were affected by the Holocaust.

The Schroeders were so moved by Whitwell Middle School’s Holocaust Project that they wrote a book, The Paperclip Project, which was published in Germany. Upon the release of this book, paperclips, letters, poems, and works of art poured into the school addressed from destinations around the globe. It wasn’t long before barrels of paperclips filled every free space at the school. In time, over 30 million paperclips were sent to Whitwell Middle School. Having reached and far exceeding their goal of collecting six million paperclips, the students began to brainstorm ways to use the donations in a memorial for the victims of the Holocaust. Initially, the paperclips were to be melted together to create a commemorative sculpture. After learning about the crematoriums in the concentration camps, students could not imagine melting the paperclips, which had each come to represent a human life.

Hooper had a dream for the memorial. She wanted to get an authentic Nazi railcar, bring it to Whitwell, and fill it with paperclips. The Schroeders helped to turn Hooper’s dream into a reality. After many obstacles, the German railcar arrived in Whitwell in fall 2001. The school worked hard to create the memorial, which today is know as the Children's Holocaust Memorial. Inside the cattle car are 11 million paperclips sent to the students at Whitwell Middle School from locations around the world. The paperclips represent the six million Jews and five million gypsies, homosexuals, and other victims of the Holocaust.

On November 9 – the anniversary of Kristallnacht, the “night of broken glass” when Nazi-inspired gangs smashed windows and looted Jewish homes, stores, and synagogues in Germany and Austria – the memorial was dedicated. Almost 1,000 people attended the dedication, including a Hebrew School class from Atlanta that came to say the Kaddish. Since its dedication, students at Whitwell Middle School continue to conduct tours, lead visitors in learning activities, and respond to inquires about the project.

As a plaque outside the Memorial reads: “Never doubt that thoughtful, committed students can change the world, one class at a time.” And by answering the simple question, “What does six million look like?” Whitwell Middle School did just that.

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Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved.